In this summary, I give you the short on the Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco.
You'll learn the difference between the Fastlane (to wealth), the Slowlane (to mediocrity) and the Sidewalk (to poverty).
And in the end, how you can change lanes by creating a C.E.N.T.S. business that frees you from your 9-5 to live the life of your dreams.
But before we dive into the deets
I read this book about 6 years ago which shifted my mindset from simply working at a job 5 days out of the week to building digital assets that make money day in and day out.
I started searching online for a internet biz that would allow me to do that and I found this lead generation coaching program that taught me how to build & rank digital assets at the top of Google that generate free traffic & leads to local business owners, like the tree care site which has been paying me $2000 per month since 2015.
At the end, I'll go into how this biz model aligns with the Values of MJ's book, but for now, learn how I got free from my 9-5 in 7 months below
Now, let's break down the Millionaire Fastlane.
About MJ Demarco
MJ grew up in Chicago, eating icecream and changing TV channels with a broomstick. Today he lives in Phoenix and regularly invests time on his blog "The Fastlane Forum."
Super Short Summary
In a time crunch? Want an extremely short version of the Millionaire Fastlane so you can be on your way?
The Central Lessons of TMF
Jump Directly into the Meat of the Millionaire Fastlane's Core Lessons, starting with the Differences between the Sidewalk, the Slowlane and the Fastlane.
The Millionaire Fastlane in PDF Form
Read the Best Selling Wealth Mindset Book The Millionaire Fastlane via this free pdf.
MJ DeMarco's Story
Entrepreneur & Author
MJ DeMarco
MJ DeMarco grew up as many of us did, in a middle-class family. He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, his favorite past times being keeping up on sports and getting ice cream at the store on the corner a few blocks away.
His first peek into the Fastlane occurred as he was walking out of the ice cream store as a teenager and came face-to-face with his dream car, a Lamborghini Countach, a sportscar popularized by the 80's film, Cannonball Run.
What really shocked MJ though was the age of the person who climbed in the car: the young man couldn't have been more than 25 years old.
With shaking nerves, MJ approached the man, saying, "Excuse me sir, can I ask what you do for a living that allows you to afford such an awesome car?"
The young car owner replied, "I'm an inventor." (source)
From that moment one, MJ's life wasn't the same, every spare moment was spent studying how young millionaires acquired their wealth, particularly those who "self-made."
His self-studies motivated him to double major in business at the Northern Illinois University.
Upon graduation, his aim was to start a business, create wealth by generating value for others, and then retire both young and rich, which after a 7 year roller-coaster of learning and building digital assets, he accomplished in 2007, at age 33.
Since then, MJ DeMarco has published several books, beginning with the Millionaire Fastlane in 2011, Unscripted in 2017, and Wealth Exposed in 2020.
Some of his regular activities are engaging with members of his online forum, "The Fastlane Forum," and making animated videos explaining the concepts of his books on YouTube.
As of 2020, MJ Demarco's net worth is estimated to be 25 million dollars.
Super Short Summary of The Millionaire Fastlane
The 3 Wealth Personalities
MJ Summarizes 3 Personalities
The Side Walker
1st Wealth Personality
A Person is Likely On the Sidewalk if They
In this section, MJ hammers on statistics from a 2014 US Census Study that reveal the financial condition of the lower to middle class, sharing disturbing figures like:
- US Citizens under the age of 55 are nearly 70% likely to have zero or negative net worth.
- 83% of "under 35" households had a total net worth of below 100,000 dollars.
The major point that MJ hammers in on throughout the Sidewalk chapters is the many who live their lives with the goal to appear richer than they really are, who he calls the "financial illusionists" (p.35).
This group of people are able to maintain their appearance by paying their luxury cars and clothes through monthly payment plans and credit cards.
The Sidewalkers' "future is mortgaged to hilt in favor of a lifestyle, with purchase affordability of any extravagance determined by the monthly payment." (p.35-36)
MJ DeMarco
The lack of Financial discipline, planning how they will earn and spend money is why the Sidewalkers end up in poverty.
The Slow Laner
2nd Wealth Personality
Occupants of the Slow Lane, on the other hand, are some of the most responsible, disciplined people around.
They are obsessed with pinching pennies and clipping coupons their groceries, to squeeze the worth out of every hard earned dollar.
Common Actions of Slow Laners
Religiously, Slow Laners put aside a piece of their income for their hoped for retirement, often forsaking Starbucks having learned they can retire faster if they save another 5 dollars a day.
Faithful to the 40 year plan, they count down the days until they can retire and begin to enjoy a life of freedom.
Occasionally, people in the Slow Lane invest in education beyond high school, as additional degrees often add digits to their annual salary.
"The Slow Lane is a job: your hard word traded for your employer's cash." (p. 115)
MJ DeMarco
The Fastlaner
3rd Wealth Personality
Common Actions of Fastlaners
But Fastlaners share certain character traits with both Sidewalkers and Slow Laners:
- Like the Sidewalker, Fastlaners are immensely conscious of the fact they have only one life, so it must be lived to the fullest.
- Like the Slow Laner, Fastlaners are calculated with where they spend their money.
- Also akin the Slow Laner, members of the Fastlane invest in their education, but not to increase immediate income, but rather into themselves, to learn the skills that, like the steel girders that support the tallest skyscrapers, support the development of the digital assets that will provide them with mailbox money, the idolized "passive income" for the rest of their lives.
Ultimately, Fastlaners are obsessed with being in control of their health, their wealth and their future, and are unwilling to surrender to the hills and valleys of the stock market for the better part of the their existence.
"The Fastlane is about building a better system that will leverage your work... In the Fastlane, you construct a system that [works] for you." (p. 115)
MJ DeMarco
C.E.N.T.S: The 5 Characteristics of a Fastlane Business
Control
CENTS
Wondering how drastic the impact on affiliate marketers is? The Location Rebel explains all.
When MJ wraps up his editorial on control, the major lesson he leaves us with is to stay in it.
So how can you make sure that the business you start doesn't violate the commandment of control?
For me, the first couple businesses I started the answer was yes, but I didn't know enough to stay away from them.
But I learned my lesson fairly quickly.
I left the MLM game for good in 2013 and learned lead generation, which provided me with the skillset to go from earning 2k a month to 52k a month in under 4 years time.
Entry
CENTS
Need
CENTS
2 Ways to Spot Opportunities
How Can You Spot Opportunities?
1. Language:
Whenever you hear people say things like:
2. Inconvenience
As a rule, people like things to be easy, made to be within reach, not off the beaten path or uncomfortable to access.
When a tool or a service makes a common task easier to accomplish, rest assured that once that solution has been marketed (made known to the broader population), they will not be able to slow the flow of purchase orders.
"Anything inconvenient is an opportunity"
MJ DeMarco
Time
CENTS
Scale
CENTS
Lead Generation is the Fastlane Business for 2020
Having read the Millionaire Fastlane in 2014, it's easy to see how much MJ's work has helped me build my business and merge from the slow lane into the fast lane.
MJ moved my focus from getting a higher paying job to building a digital business that was completely under my control and fairly simple to scale.
Although I didn't have any prior experience on working online, the coaching program I bumped into was geared to help motivated people like me get started building and ranking simple websites, that are then rented to local service providers, such as tree service businesses.
Each month, since 2015, I've been paid for the phone calls that this top ranking website. Here's a few of the checks I've received.
The great part about this business is it is super scalable.
I can go into 10 or even 100 different niches (tree service, limo rental, HVAC, etc.) in a single city and then rinse and repeat to cover multiple cities.
Imagine after you put together a dozen of these sites, and you're banking 10k a month.
After you've ranked these websites, they don't require much upkeep to stay parked at the top of the page. You can just let it do its thing and they'll keep bringing in monthly mailbox money.
I became a part of this lead generation coaching program 6 years ago, and today I control over 70 of these virtual rental properties.
Every year, I keep adding more, so my income is growing without me trading my time for dollars anymore.
I simply focus on making more lead generation sites and my income continues to go up.
Thanks to the wealth mindset given to me by MJ DeMarco, I've left the middle class for good.
A cliche of the middle class (or "Slow Laners") is that money doesn't grow on trees, and I used to agree, but not any more.
Everywhere I look there's tons of opportunity to provide value to businesses and get a sliver to deliver.
Here's another example of a website I made back in 2014 that's still paying me today:
Each month, money is delivered to my mail box because of work I did 6 years ago.
Getting paid over and over again reminds me of the value I bring to small businesses, and that feeling is irreplaceable.
But how many more businesses need help getting more customers?
What kind of value can you create?!
Next time you are driving to work, see the businesses that line the sides of the street, see the value that learning local lead generation can bring to them.
An especially relevant opportunity because of Covid-19 is providing restaurants with take out customers, since most dine-in locations are either closed or restricted to a fraction of capacity.
Become skilled in lead generation and you'll be able to create value for hundreds of other business owners and their employees, as I have and many in our community of 5,700 entrepreneurially-minded people have as well.
Patric recently posted in our group, sharing his story:
Patric has created lead gen sites that supply leads for over 4 dozen businesses throughout the United States, freeing himself from his day job as well as providing him with a positive, like-minded community.
Lead generation is the Fast Lane Business of the 21st Century.
If you'd like to learn more, click on the button below to learn how to get started building your digital assets today.
